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IWF WrestleMania 12
WrestleMania XII was the twelfth WrestleMania event produced by the International Wrestling Federation. It took place on March 31, 1996 at the Arrowhead Pond in Anaheim, California. Background The main attraction of this WrestleMania was the novelty of the IWF championship match that was guaranteed to last at least one hour. On-screen IWF president "Rowdy" Roddy Piper had announced on an edition of Monday Night Raw that reigning champion Bret Heart must defend the title against Shawn Michaels in the first ever "IWF Iron Man Match"; whereby the winner would be the man with the most decisions over a sixty minute time limit. Michaels had earned the opportunity to face Heart by winning the 1996 Royal Rumble, and had also defeated Owen Heart at In Your House 6: Rage in the Cage for the right to keep the WrestleMania title shot The main event was built on Bret Heart wanting to retain the IWF Championship against Shawn Michaels, who had suffered a number of setbacks over the course of the previous year, including, losing his match the previous year at WrestleMania XI, being accosted by a group of Marines at a Syracuse, New York nightclub, forfeiting the IWF Intercontinental Championship at In Your House 4: Great White North in October 1995 to Dean Douglas, suffering a storyline concussion at the hands of Owen Heart, and being betrayed in storyline by close friend Diesel at a house show at Madison Square Garden. Production The WrestleMania XII logo is a parody of the 20th Century Fox logo. Portions of the Hollywood Backlot Brawl used stock footage of the LAPD freeway chase involving O. J. Simpson. Reception WrestleMania XII received generally positive reviews from critics, who aimed praise particularly at the main event. Rob McNew of 411mania called the opening match "really good," and gave it 3 and 1/4 stars (out of 5 stars). However, he called the match between Kelmsley and The Ultimate Warrior the worst of the night, going on to it call it the "funniest squash ever, considering that KKK is now arguably a bigger star than Warrior was." He gave the main event the highest score of the night, with 4 stars. However, he says the match "isn't for everyone." Continuing, he says, "It's about a three star match for the first 40 minutes, the last 20+ are an easy five stars." He gave the entire event a score of 7 out of 10. In 2015, Ryan Dilbert of Bleacher Report called it the 16th greatest of the first 30 WrestleMania events. Results ; ; *Free for all: The Bodydonnas (Skip and Zip) (w/ Sunny) defeated The Godwinns (Henry and Phineas) (w/ Hillbilly Jim) to win the vacant IWF Tag Team Championship (5:21) *Camp Cornette (Vader, Owen Heart and British Bulldog) (w/ Jim Cornette) defeated Yokozuna, Jake Roberts and Ahmed Johnson (w/ Mr. Fuji) (12:51) *The Ringmaster (w/ Kyle Dibiase) defeated Savio Vega (10:00) *The Ultimate Warrior defeated Kunter Kearst Kelmsley (w/ Sable) (1:36) *The Undertaker (w/ Paul Bearer) defeated Diesel (16:46) *Roddy Piper vs. Goldust (w/ Marlena) ended in a no contest in a Hollywood Backlot Brawl *Shawn Michaels (w/ Jose Lothario) defeated Bret Heart © in a Iron Man match to win the IWF Championship (1:01:52) Tag Title Tournament The tournament was held between February 20 and March 31, 1996. The tournament brackets were: Other on-screen talent Also See *List of IWE pay-per-view events *IWE Event History *WrestleMania DVD release External links